We introduce a class of p-absolutely summing operators which we call p-extending. We show that for a logmodular function space A(K), an operator T: A(K)->Jf is p-extending if and only if there exists a probability measure ß on K such that T extends to an i some try T: AP(K, We use this result to give necessary and sufficient conditions under which a bounded linear operator is isometrically equivalent to multiplication by z on a' space L"(K, n) and certain Hardy spaces fip(Kt /x). 1. Introduction. We wish to discuss the problem of representing an operator on a Banach space as multiplication by the independent variable z on the function spaces Lp(K, li) and HP(K, p), where K is a compact subset of the complex plane and ft a positive measure on K such that li(K) = 1. Perhaps the best known instance of this arises via the spectral theorem for normal operators on a Hilbert space [7]. Given a normal operator N from a certain class called simple normal operators [4], the spectral theorem shows the existence of a positive measure p. on the spectrum (A.N) of N, with p.(a(N)) = 1, such that N is unitarily equivalent to multiplication by z on L2(erOV), p). Another important instance is provided by the subnormal operators on a Hilbert space. It is well known[l] that given any subnormal operator S having a cyclic vector, there exists a positive measure ft on the spectrum o(S) of S, with fi(a(S)) = 1 such that S is unitarily equivalent to multiplication by z on H2(cÄS), li). Such representations have proved important, for example, in the study of the invariant subspaces of these operators ([2], [18]). On a general Banach space the analogue of a normal operator is a spectral operator of scalar type (Definition 2.1), which we shall, for the sake of brevity, call a scalar operator. The restriction of such an operator to an invariant subspace will be called a subscalar operator. In §2 we introduce these operators and discuss some of their properties. In particular we show that each type has a certain